Over the next five years, the platform will work to reduce nitrogen losses to the environment — without compromising crop productivity. This will be achieved by collecting comprehensive data from intensively monitored field sites across multiple countries, improving the accuracy of models that simulate nitrogen dynamics, and evaluating how different management practices affect emissions, yields, and environmental outcomes.
A global challenge
In SmartField, our aim is to improve how we account for and mitigate nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from Danish agricultural fields, serving as a showcase for what can be achieved. Since its launch in spring 2024, SmartField has engaged with leading international research groups in a mutual exchange of knowledge and experience — contributing Danish insights while drawing on expertise and approaches from research environments around the world.
It is therefore with great pride that we can announce the expansion of the SmartField concept to an international level through the new research platform: AgNUE.
AgNUE — Agricultural Nitrogen Use Efficiency Platform — is an international research and innovation initiative focused on improving nitrogen use in agriculture and reducing environmental losses.
Better data for better models
Today, models are used to simulate and estimate how nitrogen moves through the agricultural system and what the impact is on crops and the environment. Improving these models is crucial, as they help bridge the gap between scientific understanding of nitrogen cycling and the implementation of policies designed to mitigate nitrogen pollution.
AgNUE addresses this challenge by creating the first international network dedicated to measuring and understanding how nitrogen moves through agricultural fields. Spanning Europe and the United States, the initiative brings together leading research institutions to collect comparable, high-quality field data under different soil types, climates, and farming systems.
SmartField contributes to this effort by providing:
- Experience with advanced field monitoring under real agricultural conditions
- Methods for documenting nitrogen balances and emissions
- Approaches to data quality assurance and comparability
- A practical link between measurement systems, data infrastructure, and applied solutions
These contributions support AgNUE's wider goal of creating a stronger basis for research, decision-making, and mitigation strategies. The results in AgNUE are expected to support not only research, but also future policy development, sustainability reporting, and practical implementation of mitigation measures nationally and globally.
International collaboration
Hosted by Aarhus University (Denmark), AgNUE brings together universities and research organisations specialising in soil biogeochemistry, agroecosystem modelling, microbiology, meteorology, and sustainable agronomy.
The platform is funded with up to €24 million by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and is further supported by US-based funding.
Partners are brought together across Europe and the United States - We look much forward to the collaboration:
- Aarhus University (Denmark)
- Danish Technological Institute (Denmark)
- North Carolina State University (USA)
- University of Illinois (USA)
- Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands)
- University of Basilicata (Italy)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
- Colorado State University (USA)
- Technical University of Madrid (Spain)
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)
- Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
- University of Helsinki (Finland) and
- INRAE – the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (France).